This invention relates generally to the field of nuclear medicine and more particularly to hybrid systems having gamma camera(s) and an X-ray or computed tomography (CT) system for attenuation correction of nuclear images.
Attenuation correction in nuclear medicine imaging is well known in the art. For example, X-ray or CT images may be acquired to correct the nuclear medicine images for the effect of attenuation by intervening tissue and bone of the gamma rays that are used for producing the image.
Some hybrid systems mount the gamma detectors or heads and the X-ray (or CT) portion on a single rotor. This limits the rotation speed of the CT portion, which may increase scanning time.
Also, the combination of the systems is very heavy. Some hybrid systems mount the gamma heads and the CT portion on separate gantries that are aligned with respect to each other. Having two gantries adds weight to the overall system and additional correction and/or matching may be needed between the attenuation maps and the nuclear medicine images.